Fellowship of the Redeemed
Notes
Transcript
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Introduction
Last week, we started a study out of the book of Ephesians that will ultimately highlight unity in the church and you can see a clear hint of this major theme of Ephesians in the last verse that we read: God’s purpose in the fullness of time is to unite all things in Christ. But what is interesting is that instead of starting with the more practical details of creating unity in the church, Paul begins by laying down the doctrines of the Christian faith that form the foundations of this unity. Unlike the order that we find in the letter to the Ephesians, Western Christianity seems to operate backwards, we frontload our churches with a lot of practical advice for living but gloss over the truth that unites us. Paul avoids this problem by beginning with an indepth look at the Gospel of Christ and waits to address the more practical discussions on loving each other, or how to have a good marriage, or advice for biblical parenting towards the end.
And I beleive Paul’s rationale for writing this letter in this order is fairly obvious. There are a lot of reasons why people become a part of a church. They come for the friendships, the social interactions, the community, maybe even a shared sense of purpose and there is nothing wrong with these reasons as long as we recognize that these are all secondary to the fact that we are united in Christ and through Him, we stand together as the redeemed children of God. Our fellowship is in Christ alone because as Christians, we have this common bond of being redeemed through His blood.
Unity begins with a like-mindedness in what we believe. Agreeing to disagree on major tenants of the Christian does not lead to the true unity that God desires for the church, it actually leads to greater compromise and the weakening of the Christian witness. This is why Paul exhorts us to have the same mind along with the same love. In Philippians, he writes:
complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
In our sometimes overly empathetic world, we often highlight love as the only basis for unity in the church and we forget that this needs to be balanced and strengthed by the common truths that we claim to share. After all, it is much easier to deepen a relationship with someone who shares the same values and perspectives about life. Not that you can’t ever have disagreements but there is always an understanding that the truths that we agree on over shadows the opinions that we disagree on.
This past year, the weakness in the American church was on full display in terms of our lack of unity and it was evidenced by the heated division over matters that were secondary opinions to the truth of the Gospel. And I think the false assumption that many people make, in and out of the church, is that all this conflict in our nation was due to the strong religious ideologies in our country but I don’t think that is entirely the case. Every survey shows that America is quickly turning into a post-Christian nation with record numbers claiming no religious affliation. But even those who are in the church, don’t practice the same type of robust and fervent spirtuality of even a generation ago. Every measurement of factors like church attendance, to understanding of the Sciptures, to devotion to prayer, and service to the world has revealed a decline in spiritual maturity within the church.
This lack of maturity in turn has led to many of the heated conflicts over secondary issues within our midst for the simple reason that the major tenants of Christianity no longer have the power to hold us together becasue they are no believed en masse. This week, I read a pretty insightful opinion piece about the decline of religion and how that is contributing directly to the levels of division in our society. Shadi Hamid, who is Muslim by heritage, gives us this unique third culture perspective on our nation’s problems:
As Christianity’s hold, in particular, has weakened, ideological intensity and fragmentation have risen. American faith, it turns out, is as fervent as ever; it’s just that what was once religious belief has now been channeled into political belief. Political debates over what America is supposed to mean have taken on the character of theological disputations. This is what religion without religion looks like.
Body
Body
For some, the fervency, zeal, and even passion that was meant to be directed towards our belief in Christ has been misdirected into secondary causes and political beliefs. My hope and prayer through this series is that the timeless truths of the Gospel would awaken our souls, be the source of its light, and become the focal point of our passions. And there is no greater truth to accomplish that the this truth that we have been redeemed through the blood of Christ according to the riches of his grace which He lavished upon us. We are the fellowship of the redeemed.
The idea of redemption is found throughout the Bible and it generally refers to a price or an action that needs to be taken in order to set someone free from debt or slavery. In ancient times, becoming a slave was often the consequence for being in debt. This type of slavery was more of an indentured servanthood that required repayment until the debt was paid in full. But occasionally, a friend or a family member would graciously make the entire payment on behalf of the debtor and in essence set them free from their debt. This was such a common practice in the Greek world that there are actual copies of legal documents that record the amount that was paid by individuals to deliver their family member or friend from the bondage of indebted slavery.
If you have been in the church long enough, you are probably familiar with the idea that your sin has created an insurmountable debt to God that could only be paid by Jesus death on the cross. Jesus graciously took on the debt that we owed to the Father and he paid it in full. This is what Paul explains in the book of Colossians.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
I’m sure many of you went to youth group retreats where you wrote down your sin and then you nailed it to the cross and hopefully afterwards, you felt like the burden of sin was removed from your shoulder. But the forgiveness of sin is actually just the first step in your redemption because full redemption also involves restoring the full value back to a person who has lost their worth through the unfortunate circumstances of life. In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, we see this aspect of redemption as relates to a poor man who has to sell his land in order to pay his debt.
And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
“If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.
Sin and the debt that it creates forces us to lose invaluable spiritual property. We lose the image of God in us because sin corrupts this image beyond recognition. We lose our relationship with God because sin creates distance and isolation from God. We lose our freedom because sin won’t stop until it enslaves us. And ultimately, we can lose our soul and even forfeit the gift of eternal life becasue sin blinds us to what is truly worth living for.
As you think about those examples, Jesus is our nearest kinsman who has come to redeem everything that we have sold off as a result of sin. Just as Esau sold his birthright in sin, every single person who has been impoverished by the sin’s debt will sell their spiritual birthright for what amounts to nothing. As Christians, this is why it is so important for us to remember that we have already been bought at price and whatever has been lost is being restored as part of our redemption.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Redemption does not end with just the forgiveness of sin, it descrbes the whole process that ends at the glorfication of your body. And inbetween the beginning of your redemption and its ultimate completion, you have to continue with the transaction of giving your life to Christ because in reality he paid the price of redemption with His very blood. But so many Christians have such a hard time going through with this process of redemption because they are unwilling to deliver to Jesus what He has already paid for. (I like to sell things on Ebay every once in a while. If you purchase something, you expect it to be delivered without the seller wavering about whether or not he/she wants to keep it. ) Jesus didn’t die just to forgive you of your sin, his blood is payment in full for your life. “You have been crucified with Christ, you no longer live but Christ lives in you.”
We may be less familiar with this aspect of redemption but understanding it is key to surrendering your life to God. Let me share some key truths regarding our redemption in Christ.
1. You are gaining far more than you are losing. Jesus is telling us, “Give me your life, and I will give you mine.” You are not surrendering your life for nothing but your exchanging it for the very life of Christ. Why in the world would you not take that offer? (If somone offered you a million dollars for your old favorite pair of jeans, would you not accept it in a heart beat.) Even if your life is seems good, it’s nothing in comparison to the life God has stored for you.
2. By accepting this offer of redemption, the full value of your life is restored to you. We all would like to believe that human life is priceless but that is not what the world really believes judging by its actions. People are trafficked for less than the price of an iPhone, babies are aborted by the millions with little regard, easily treatable diseases kill hundreds of thousands of children, and the list goes on. Sin has robbed us of the true value of human life. And in our sin drenched world, the value of human life has become relative and it depends on whatever price someone is willing to place on it. But in purchasing our life through His blood, Jesus is making the redemptive value of our life equal to His own. This is why we can be reckoned as God’s own children, why we will be heirs with Christ and come into this glorious inheritance. The restored value of our life comes directly from the price that was paid for it! In some ways, our lives are like a piece of art. Depending on the eye of the beholder, a painting might be worth nothing to one person but worth millions to another. (Right now, that digital artwork by Beeple is all the rage, recently auctioned off for $69 million dollars.) Consider this, God refused to pay anything to redeem the fallen angels, yet he paid everything to redeem us.
3. If Christ has taken ownership of your life thorugh His blood, you can be sure that he will protect his investment and guarantee that He will never lose it. It’s seems like a such a clear choice, would you like to entrust your life to someone who is the author of life, who has demonstrated the power to still every storm, who has conquered the very sting of death, or do you want to continue managing your own life thinking that you can produce a better outcome than the Son of God. Sometimes, we are like little kids who insist that they want to do things their way and as parents, all we can do is shake our heads and watch make a complete mess of things. It’s cute when they are young, not so much when they are older. Place your life in the one who purchased it and I guarantee, it will be well with your soul.
4. I can certainly go on about the value of redemption but let me leave you with one more thought. In redemption, you gain true freedom. In a place like America, freedom is directly equated to owning your own life. But the principle of redemption is that now someone else owns your life, in our case, Christ owns our life and that seems less free, doesn’t it? Many people think they are free but if you really are honest, how free are you? Are you not bound by your fears, you anxieties? Are you not trapped by the pressures of the world to be this way or that way? To make x amount of money, to be thought well of by others. It’s interesting, one thing that I learned at the tail end of this pandemic, if you are trapped long enough, it feels like you’re free. I’ve been trapped in my house for the better part of the last year and now honestly, I kind of enjoy it. Nevermind the fact that I’m deteriorating physically, my social skills are vanishing, and I’m losing touch reality, I’m starting to enjoy this sense of being imprisoned in my own home becaue it has become my entire world. Many people think that surrendering your life to Christ means limiting themselves, when in fact their lives have always been limited without realizing it. I love the way Charles Spurgeon describes the limits of the Christian life, he says, “The laws of Christ are like the laws that govern how birds fly through the open sky, and how fish are bound by the limitless depths of the ocean.” The redemption of Christ breaks us out of the cages placed around our lives by our own sinful desires and sets us free to live life in all its abundance. Yes there are limits to the Christian life but those limits are far more expansive than the limits that you’ve placed around your own life. For when the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Riches of His Grace
Riches of His Grace
As we consider all the benefits of redemption, admittedly it sounds too good to be true and this is where many Christians have such a hard time surrendering their lives to Christ. Why would Jesus do such a thing? Our redemption through his blood demonstrates the riches of God’s grace that has been lavished upon us. In many people’s minds, grace means simply the forgiveness of sins and it becomes a license to live whatever way we please. Ironically, we can use the principle of grace to do exactly the opposite of what redemption demands, which is to live as if our lives as if it no longer belonged to us.
The forgiveness of sins brings us to an even balance with God. It takes us out of our insurmountable debt and brings us to zero but the riches of God’s grace doesn’t end there, it fills our account with all the treasures of heaven, of which the greatest treasure is God himself. Jonathan Edward brings this point to light in one of his greatest sermons.
The redeemed have all their objective good in God.
God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption.
He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased.
God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls.
Why would God give himself over to us? To show that in his grace, there is nothing He would withold from those whom He loves.
There is nothing that brings greater change in the human heart than the grace of God. The life of the apostle Paul is one of the best examples of the riches of God’s grace at work in the human heart. We know that before Paul encountered the glory of Christ on the road to Damascus, he was filled with hatred and anger fueled by self-righteousness. This caused him to persecute Christians and to oversee their punishment even to the point of death. He was there to witness and give approval to the stoning of the first recorded Christian martyr. But on the way to putting more Christians in jail, Jesus stops him and turns his life completely around. And Paul is changed from a perscutor of the church into one of it’s greatest Apostles. Whenever Paul speaks about God’s grace, he always seems to add a superlative, a word of praise, or a deep posture of humility. It is as if he still could not believe that God would chosen someone like him not only for salvation but to be an instrument of the gospel. It seems that Paul never ceased to be amazed by the grace that was shown to him by God and he could hardly control his praise of God becasue of it.
The fellowship of the redeemed is one that is filled with the grace of God becasue of our shared experience of the riches of his grace. In an area that prides itself as being the greatest meritocracy, even churches can be driven by the need to perform, to be perfect, and to succeed. These seem good but in the end they often stand in oppostion to building culture of grace. What does a community filled with the riches of God’s grace look like?
Pride no longer poisons our relationships. All comparisons stop, we are not out to compete against one another except in the demonstration of love. Every person recognizes they are what they are by the grace of God.
2. There is no longer shame about our weaknesses because we know that God’s grace is suffient and in our weakness, God’s strength is perfected.
3. We joyfully serve one another out of simple gratitude that God would use some one like us for His purpose. I’ve seen too many people serving to prove their worth, to prove how spiritual they are. That is toxic to the culture of grace.
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
4. There is a ready acceptance of each other’s faults but more importantly a desire to help each other to overcome sin and become everything God called us to be.
5. There is constant amazement over the Gospel and an eagerness to share it with others.
Response
Response
When was the last time you have marvelled at the riches of God’s grace towards you? The last time you praised Him from the bottom of your heart for all that He has done for you?